Whether or not the rumor has legs, with expected revenue of $75 million this year Playfish shows how advertising combined with virtual goods sales can mean lucrative real world money to social game developers on Facebook and other platforms. Another leading social games company, Zynga, is slated to report revenues upwards of $200 million for 2009.

Although the free-to-play with microtransactions business model has been huge in the Asian video gaming industry for some time now, it's been slow to make it over to Western shores. This year casual and social gaming companies using that business model have attracted massive numbers of players and revenue to match, unsettling the traditional video game industry.

Beyond the current revenue potential, EA could see further gains from using its muscle to more widely advertise Playfish's game roster — which includes hugely popular Facebook titles Restaurant City, Pet Society, World Challenge, and Who Has the Biggest Brain.

Do you play any of those titles on Facebook? Have you ever spent real money to buy virtual goods inside a game world?

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